Resumo

Asignatura pendiente (Unfinished Bussiness, 1977) and Volver a empezar (Begin the Beguine, 1982) are two stories about the recovery of a lost past. In their time, there were (deeply actual films) (films deeply related to the present), but there were also some traces of one of the most remembered films of Cinema History. A subject bound to classical Hollywood as it is the reencounter, it merges with Spanish cinema by the hand of Jose Luis Garci, a big admirer of classical filmmaking. These two productions have some elements in common, but they always keep different tones, structures and narratives that will be compared in this report. As Bergman and Bogart in Casablanca, the two couples of Garci films were conceived for facing the drama of lost time during the years of Francoism going through their frustration, disappointment, resignation, and the strong feeling of a blurred future, as they were lost in their own country at an uncertain time. In this article, both interpretations made by Garci will be analyzed in light of Casablanca, considering that one of those interpretations granted Garci with the first Academy Award in the category of Foreign Language Film for a Spanish spoken production, in an April, 40 years ago.